Collaboration Across Communities: A Network Analysis of Power Distribution in an Urban Literacy Initiative

• In Event: Roundtable Session 112
  In Roundtable Session: Community and Its Influence on Education

Abstract

Community members who collaborate to address systemic social issues, such as early literacy, must renegotiate lines of authority as they construct common goals and plans of action. This study uses a whole network analysis to address two research questions: How do pre-existing power relationships influence the way authority is structured across a community-based educational collaboration? And how does this structure, in turn, influence the goal of distributing power to the community? Findings regarding network density, fragmentation, and multiplexity have distinct implications for the distribution of power across the collaborating organizations and to community members.

Author

• Kimberly LeChasseur, University of Connecticut